Wisconsin Attorney General Appealing Brendan Dassey’s Overturned Conviction

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel filed a notice of appeal Friday in the case of a man convicted in helping rape and kill Teresa Halbach in 2005, only to have his conviction overturned last month.

Brendan Dassey’s conviction was overturned by a U.S. District Court judge in Milwaukee who ordered Dassey be freed within 90 days unless the case was appealed. The judge said Dassey’s statements were coerced, and he was wrongly imprisoned.

Now, the state is responding. Schimel filed the notice of appeal Friday with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a written statement, Schimel claims the judge’s decision was “wrong on the law, and wrong on the facts,” and Dassey’s confession was voluntary.

Dassey was 16 years old when Halbach was killed after she went missing in 2005 after going to the Avery family’s auto salvage business near Manitowoc to take photos of vehicles. Human remains and Halbach’s car were found in a burn pit on the property.

By 2007, Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were convicted separately in her death.

Avery came to national attention after he was released from prison for a different rape it was later proven he did not commit. Dassey and Avery’s cases were profiled in the popular Netflix documentary “Making a Murderer” released late last year.

Dassey will remain in prison until the state’s appeal has been heard.